Pa. bakery rolling out the dough for Fasnacht Day

NAZARETH — Fastnacht Day is coming, so employees at Schubert’s Bakery can forget about sleep.

Stephen Riccelli and about 10 of his employees at the Nazareth bakery will be hard at work making thousands of the fried dough in honor of the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

Fastnacht Day, also known as Fat Tuesday, is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday and the official start of Lent.

Some say Fastnacht Day started as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat, and butter, which were traditionally given up during Lent.

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For the bakery it’s one of the biggest holidays of the year, with the cash registers ringing up $7 for each dozen. Twenty to 30 special orders are in from local businesses and German classrooms in the Nazareth Area School District and 700 boxes are expected to go out the door.

Doors will open at 5 a.m. Tuesday at the bakery at 49 N. Broad St.

“It’ll be standing room only,” said Riccelli, of Bath, who has owned Schubert’s since 2008. “There will be a line out the door.”

Riccelli said employees will arrive Monday afternoon to craft boxes, roll the dough and begin frying. Doughnuts later are garnished with powder, glaze or sugar while some are left plain.

Work goes on all night and into Tuesday until the last box is sold. The bakery closes Wednesday to clean up powder left everywhere and for the employees to sleep.

Most Fasnachts contain flour, sugar, shortening, yeast and salt. Riccelli said the late Ernest Schubert’s time-honored secret ingredient makes his doughnuts so profitable. He passed it down to Riccelli when he bought the 40-year-old business from Schubert.

“We kept his recipes for the Fasnachts and our staple Moravian sugar cake, as well as the name as Schubert’s, because he created a history here and the bakery is known for it,” Riccelli said. “People here can identify with it.”

In celebration of the bakery’s 40th anniversary this year, Riccelli is planning on a large festivity over the summer to thank customers for their patronage. Not many mom and pop bakeries have been as prosperous for 40 years, and large supermarket chains have forced some in the area to shut down, he said.

“It’s really hard to be in business that long,” Riccelli said. “We’ve never lost the fact that we’re part of a small town.”